


Montre Station

by theVelveteenPlatypus



Series: Deja Vu [2]
Category: Destroyer - Monsta X (Music Video), Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Artists, Destroyer - Freeform, Fan theory, Hackers, M/M, Time Loop, math nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-21 06:03:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 8,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14909738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theVelveteenPlatypus/pseuds/theVelveteenPlatypus
Summary: Hyungwon sighed and had to look away. His actions had irrevocably entwined his life with six others and he had to shoulder that guilt all alone. But to fix it...he would need their help.Based on the music video for Destroyer.





	1. Part 1: The Code

Hyungwon paced along the length of the train car, lost in his thoughts. He absently watched the walls of the tunnel speeding by through the windows, wondering how he had let things spin so completely out of control. He had only wanted to help. That’s what he kept telling himself, anyway.

He stopped in the center of the car, reaching into his suit’s breast pocket for his watch and lifting it to eye level. The hands were still spinning backwards, undeniable proof that the time loop was collapsing. The lights in the train car flickered and he glanced up at the camera installed at the end of the car. It came standard in all train cars and it sparked a reluctant idea in his mind. Hyungwon sighed and had to look away. His actions had irrevocably entwined his life with six others and he had to shoulder that guilt all alone. But to fix it...he would need their help.

A plan began forming in his mind. He tweaked a few dials on his watch and the hands stopped spinning. The local time was 11:15am, which didn’t give him much time, but it was his only shot. The Montre train would reach the station at 1:15pm and he had to get six people, strangers to him now, to be at the station when he got there.

With a newfound resolve, he stared defiantly into the camera. He had started this, now it was time to end it.


	2. The Blackout

Jooheon walked down the tunnel to his and Changkyun’s hangout, tossing his lucky baseball as he went. They had been working on a big project for the last few months and today was launch day. He grinned, pleased that all their hard work was finally paying off. Sure, it was kind of illegal...but that’s what made it so fun.

Turning the last corner, he saw Changkyun reviewing their code with a red solo cup in one hand and his feet propped on his desk. Jooheon tossed his baseball one last time before whistling softly to announce his presence. Changkyun swiveled his head, looking at Jooheon over the rim of his glasses. He smiled and raised his cup in acknowledgement.

“Welcome back,” Changkyun said, his attention already turned back to his computer screen.

“You should really consider cutting back on those energy drinks,” Jooheon said, raising an eyebrow at the empty cans that littered the desk. “Your heart is going to stop one of these days, and then who will I have to terrorize the city with? No one, that’s who. You can’t just abandon me like that.”

Changkyun waved him off, still focused on his code. Jooheon rolled his eyes, but let it slide. For now. He had only been half joking.

Jooheon dragged a chair over to his own desk and pulled up their code repository to review his elements of their program. As far as he could tell, his stuff was operational. Scrolling through Changkyun’s pieces, he’d just started to step through a tricky block of code when Changkyun groaned and Jooheon looked over his shoulder.

“You stuck?” He asked Changkyun.

“It’s the call command,” Changkyun sighed. “I’m getting an error when I try to test it. Everything else seems kosher, but we can’t launch without this damn command.”

“Let me see,” Jooheon said, getting up to look over Changkyun’s shoulder. They worked better when they were looking at the same screen.

Jooheon studied the code for a few minutes, running through his mental troubleshooting checklist. When he finally found the problem, he smiled to himself. It was so gratifying to fix code, despite wanting to tear your hair out until you found the problem.

“You forgot to capitalize the first letter of the call,” he told Changkyun triumphantly. He reached past the other boy and made the quick fix.

Changkyun frowned. “It’s always fucking capitalization with me. Case sensitivity is bullshit, I stand firmly by that.”

“Whatever,” Jooheon said, standing back. He would have teased Changkyun about it but he was too excited to run the damn thing. “I think we’re ready to deploy.”

Changkyun grinned, switching to his spoofed administrator account by typing {admin} Electric_Power_Corporation to access the controls. He typed the followup command {admin} Turn_off with the proper capitalization and looked up at Jooheon before pressing enter.

“On three?” Jooheon asked.

“On three,” Changkyun confirmed. “One...two…”

He pressed enter and their lights dimmed before switching to the backup generators they had installed for this very reason. Changkyun hurriedly pulled up footage from traffic cameras around the city and they watch the signals go out one by one. More cameras showed the giant screens in the town center fizzling out, lighted storefronts went dark...the city had been shut down. All because of them.

“Wow,” Changkyun breathed. He looked up at Jooheon in awe. “It worked. Holy shit, it actually worked.”

“Of course it worked,” Jooheon said casually, clapping Changkyun on the back. “We’re geniuses.”

They grinned at each other for a few seconds, reveling in their victory, before a flickering on Changkyun’s monitor drew their attention back to the screen. There, black and white cctv footage had taken over one of the monitors. It looked like the inside of a train car. A boy Jooheon vaguely recognized looked directly into the camera. 

Jooheon checked the time stamp and noted that the feed was apparently at 1:15pm. Which was impossible for two reasons. First, they had just cut power to the whole city, including the train system and its cctv network— the trains should have all slowed to a stop and the feeds should have stopped recording. He glanced at his watch to confirm the second impossibility— it was 11:15am. According to the time stamp, this footage was from the future.

Jooheon hurried over to his computer and found the same footage being broadcast on his screen. As he watched, the image cut to the same train car but staring into the camera was...himself. It was like looking into a black and white mirror and Jooheon’s eyes widened in disbelief.

He glanced at Changkyun’s computer and saw that the other boy was seeing his own double on the screen. Before he could voice the ‘what the fuck’ on the tip of his tongue, the footage cut back to the stranger who was still looking into the camera.

Jooheon couldn’t tear his eyes away. What was going on? How was this possible? The blackout aside, their network was totally isolated— any and all broadcasts were blocked unless directly requested from their end...how could they just pick up an unsolicited transmission? And why were their faces on cctv footage of a train, two hours from now?

“Jooheon,” Changkyun whispered. “Look.”

Jooheon whipped around to see Changkyun staring blankly at a glass of water on his table. It was shaking, and now that Jooheon was paying attention, he felt a low rumble that he could hear vibrating through his equipment. His eyes flicked up to meet Changkyun’s as he tried to understand what was happening. They had purposefully set up their hangout in this underground tunnel because it was on the far loop of the abandoned Montre train, which had been shut down for years. It was closed off and there weren’t any trains that ran in the adjacent tunnels, but as they listened Jooheon heard the unmistakable screech of a train speeding down its tracks.

“What the  _ fuck _ ?” Jooheon finally said softly.

Jooheon and Changkyun stared at each other for a long time, the rumbling steadily subsiding until the only sound in their hangout was the quiet hum of the generators.

Changkyun pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “You saw the timestamp, yeah?”

Jooheon nodded numbly. He checked his watch to confirm again that it was only 11:15am. Looking up at Changkyun, he saw the other boy studying him.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Changkyun asked.

“If you’re thinking that this is about five kinds of fucked, then yes. Very much so.”

“Jooheon,” Changkyun said seriously. “We have to go to the train station. We have to find the source of that footage. And that guy...I swear I know him from somewhere. We  _ have _ to find him.”

Jooheon  _ had _ been thinking the same thing, but hearing Changkyun say it out loud made it sound even crazier than it had in his head.

“Okay,” Jooheon said slowly, beginning to pace. “Say that we go, and that we find this guy...what then? ‘Excuse me, random stranger, did you happen to hack into our secure system from the future?’”

Changkyun ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I see your point. But Jooheon, we can’t just not do anything. I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, but aren’t you curious to find out?”

Jooheon stopped pacing and stared at his monitor thoughtfully, remembering the footage that had been there a few minutes earlier. Changkyun was right, he  _ was _ curious. But he couldn’t help the dread twisting its way through his stomach.

“Fine, let’s go,” Jooheon finally conceded. “We’ve got, what, two hours?”

Changkyun clapped his hands together and Jooheon could practically see the gears spinning in the other boy’s mind. “It’ll take about an hour and a half to get to the station, less if we hurry. I’ll bring my laptop so we can keep an eye on the cctv cameras…”

As Changkyun hurriedly gathered his things, Jooheon swiped his lucky baseball from his desk. He tossed it a couple of times and considered everything that had happened today so far. They had caused a city-wide blackout, been hacked from the future by a familiar stranger, and now were about to embark on what was essentially a quest with little to no indication of what may be waiting for them at the end. He tossed his baseball one last time, smiling to himself. Just another Thursday.

When Changkyun was all geared up, they powered down their computers and set off out of their hangout at a jog. Whatever happened, for better or for worse, they would get their answers in two short hours.


	3. The Loop

Wonho walked into one of the math lecture halls at random, looking for some peace and quiet so he could tackle his theoretical math homework. His dorm room was off limits because of his roommate’s...extracurricular activities. He shook his head. Being sexiled was the worst. Between that and the random blackout this morning, his day was quickly going downhill.

Instead of the empty room he had been expecting, Wonho saw that one of his classmates was about one third of the way down the stadium-style seats, surrounded by sheets of paper and with his pen tapping thoughtfully at his mouth. He was pretty sure the other boy’s name was Kihyun, and he was the type of student who had all of the answers to the professor’s questions and raised his hand in class. Wonho also always had the answers to the professor’s questions, but  _ never _ raised his hand. Social anxiety had given him a brooding reputation, one that he accentuated with his clothing and his ever-present headphones. If it meant that he was left alone, he was happy to let the reputation stand.

Shifting his attention to the board, Wonho saw a series of equations that had elements of this week’s concepts. Part of him really wanted to just find another empty room to work, but Kihyun seemed so harmless, and there was something about the equations that resonated with him. He was totally a math nerd, and loved theoretical math most of all— he just loved how boundless numbers could be. It was so elegant that he could lose himself in equations like these for hours on end without ever getting bored. Frustrated, sure— but never bored.

Pushing back his anxiety and descending the steps, Wonho tried to circle around so that he would edge into Kihyun’s peripheral vision and wouldn’t startle the other boy too badly, but Kihyun was so engrossed in his thoughts that he still didn’t notice that he had company. Wonho gently rapped his knuckles on Kihyun’s desk to get his attention. The other boy started, whipping his head around to look up at Wonho, but only gave a shy smile before scrawling a final thought in his notes.

Wonho waited patiently, understanding how fleeting strains of logic could be, until Kihyun finally looked back up.

“Hi,” the other boy said brightly. “Wonho, right? Theoretical math?”

Wonho blinked, surprised by the easy recognition. He supposed that when you were the only math major who didn’t look the part, you ended up being a bit memorable.

“I remember your presentation on cryptography last semester,” Kihyun continued. “I thought it was kind of genius, the way you tied in cyber security with the strengths of encryption based on higher levels of math. It just stuck with me, you know?”

“Oh,” Wonho said blankly, feeling color rise to his cheeks. He had spent a lot of time on that presentation and he felt a glow of pride at Kihyun’s recall of his work. “Thanks,” he said inanely. 

Kihyun tilted his head to the side. “Did you need something?”

Wonho started, realizing that his monosyllabic conversation skills were probably starting to make Kihyun kind of uncomfortable. “Um...no, I was just coming in here to get some work done, but then you were here and I noticed the equations on the board. Are they yours?”

“Yep,” Kihyun answered, idly scratching the side of his head with his pen. “I’m super stuck, though. You know the semester projects we have to do? I decided to do mine on time theory, but no matter how I tweak these equations I keep ending up with time loops. I can’t figure it out. Here, let me show you…”

Kihyun stood abruptly and strode towards the board. Wonho had no choice but to follow, his anxiety forgotten.

“See here?” Kihyun asked, pointing to a spot in the center of the board and picking up a marker, “I’ve tried multiple theoretical approaches from all of the mathematicians we studied in our 200 level classes, and every single one…” He paused to write the word ‘loop’ next to a logic statement, “...ends here.”

They both studied the equations. Wonho was able to find and follow Kihyun’s reasoning despite the scattered board, and Wonho’s brain dutifully shuffled the numbers around to look for some sort of new approach. His first few tries all concurred with Kihyun’s end result of a time loop, which was unsettling in it’s innate impossibility, but eventually...

“Can I see that marker?” Wonho asked distractedly, holding out his hand until he felt the marker dropped into his palm.

Wonho found a small free space on the board and hurriedly copied down one of Kihyun’s first equations, creating a new variable to manipulate. He combined a few logic strings into a new equation and after a few minutes of furious scribbling, he stood back. His result was still a loop, but with a new number this time: X = 44155102M.

They stood in perfect silence, Wonho double- and triple-checking his work, and an uncomfortable feeling settled into his stomach. He had proven that there was a time loop, with concrete figures, which was impossible. It couldn’t be right...but it was.

“Fuck,” Kihyun whispered “That’s it. You solved it, but now—”

“There’s a definite time loop,” Wonho finished for him.

They looked at each other for a long moment, considering the implications of their discovery. Kihyun excitedly made to return to his desk, but Wonho impulsively grabbed the other boy’s arm. “Kihyun, this isn’t right.”

“Yes it is,” Kihyun insisted. “The math checks out—”

“No,” Wonho said, shaking his head, “it isn’t  _ right _ .”

“Wonho, we have to figure this out. We have to know what this number means. If we’re actually in a time loop…”

Kihyun trailed off, shaking free of Wonho’s hold on his arm. Wonho let him go, looking back at the board.  _ I don’t know if we  _ want _ to know _ , Wonho thought uneasily.

Wonho walked back to where Kihyun was seated again, typing frantically on his phone. When he got there, Kihyun raised his phone for Wonho to see, narrowly missing punching him in the face. Wonho gently extricated Kihyun’s phone from the other boy’s grasp and held it at a distance where he could read the article displayed there.

“The Montre train?” Wonho asked hesitantly, trying to follow Kihyun’s logic. When he looked up for clarification, he was met with a wide-eyed stare from Kihyun, his expression so eager and open that it startled Wonho into blushing.

“The Montre train!” Kihyun repeated excitedly. “Look at the number! The train number!”

Wonho did as he was told and was beyond shocked to see the number that he had solved for: 44155102M.

“How is that possible?” Wonho asked, trying to come up with an explanation for the correlation. A  _ logical _ explanation.

“Does it matter?” Kihyun asked. “Wonho, we have to go check it out.”

“Wait, what?” Wonho said incredulously.

“We have to go,” Kihyun repeated. “This is huge— if we’re really in a time loop and it’s somehow tied to the Montre train, then we have to go to the station.”

Wonho blinked. “We?”

“It’s your equation,” Kihyun said, studying his shoes. “And I don’t want to go by myself.” He looked up at Wonho. “Please? It’s important, I can feel it. We  _ have _ to go.”

Wonho considered Kihyun’s idea. He was intrigued, and it was his equation that confirmed the time loop. But...he was scared. He felt an undeniably  _ wrong _ feeling about this whole thing, but oddly he also felt an insistent pull towards following this through. He couldn’t count the number of science fiction books he had read whose plots revolved around the dangers of meddling with time. It never ended well. Ever. But logic aside, Kihyun was right. They had to find out for themselves.

Wonho noted the time on his watch. 11:15am.

“When did the Montre train run?” he asked Kihyun, his mind made up.

Kihyun beamed when he realized that Wonho was on board. The other boy took his phone back and scrolled through the article. “The train stopped at the old station at 1:15pm. That gives us, what, two hours?”

“Yeah,” Wonho said, trying to ignore the anxiety twisting through his stomach. “We’ll have to go in through a back way. The main entrance is blocked off, but I know a way in. If we leave now, we’ll get there about fifteen minutes early...we’ll need some stuff though, flashlights for starters. The blackout should be cleared up by the time we get there if it isn’t already, but I doubt they keep the lights on in an abandoned station.”

“Good point,” Kihyun said thoughtfully, pen tapping at his mouth again. “I think I have one in my dorm room. I’m just a few minutes away so we should still get there on time…”

As Kihyun gathered his things, Wonho situated his backpack over one shoulder and idly looked over the equations on the board. The idea of being in a time loop was so surreal that he was having trouble wrapping his mind around the concept, much less what they were about to do. His thoughts raced and he felt a little sick. It was crazy, going off on an adventure to prove an element of time theory based on theoretical math. He had homework. Other theoretical equations to solve. And yet, he felt excited at the prospect of deviating from his careful routine. He felt  _ alive _ .  Wonho shook his head, surprised at the revelation.

“Ready?” Kihyun asked, hiking up his backpack.

“Yeah,” Wonho replied.  _ As I’ll ever be _ , he added silently.


	4. The Theme

Minhyuk dipped his paintbrush into the mixture of acrylic paint that had taken him three tries to get the  _ exact _ shade of blue he needed. Before he began painting again, he glanced over his shoulder at Shownu. The other boy’s painting was coming along well, considering how much time had been spent sketching and erasing and redrawing on his canvas. Minhyuk smiled and turned back to his work. He loved working with Shownu because of the purposeful silence that permeated the studio when they painted together. It was bliss.

Their class had been paired off for their midterm project, each group getting a single word to inspire complementary works. Their word was ‘time’. Minhyuk had immediately gotten the idea of an hourglass suspended in the cosmos, a literal interpretation of the phrase ‘space and time’. Shownu had taken a more abstract approach, painting a train speeding into a tunnel with reckless abandon to keep on schedule. They had both taken a single word and interpreted it in entirely different ways, the root of the concept binding their works together. Minhyuk thought that was beautiful.

“Fuck,” Shownu muttered behind him. “Do you have a round 3? I can’t find mine…”

“Sure thing,” Minhyuk answered, grabbing the right paintbrush from his stand and twisting to hand it over.

“Thanks,” Shownu said with a shy smile.

Minhyuk beamed. Shownu was incredibly reserved, which fascinated an extrovert like Minhyuk, and any interaction he could wring from the other boy felt like a small victory.

Shownu nodded tentatively before turning back to his work. Minhyuk was about to do the same when Shownu stood suddenly and knocked over his bucket of gray water. It hit the floor with a crash, startling Minhyuk to his feet and setting off a ringing in his ears. The ringing pulsed into a screeching, like a train taking a turn too fast, and he saw Shownu rubbing at his temples with a pained look on his face. The ringing subsided as quickly as it had come, and Minhyuk looked Shownu over with concern.

“You okay?” He asked worriedly.

Shownu nodded, “Yeah, my ears rang there for a minute. Screeching almost, like—”

“A train?” Minhyuk finished for him. “Yeah, me too. Weird, right?”

Shownu looked at him critically, seeming to search for signs that Minhyuk was making fun of him. Finding none, he nodded. “Yeah. Weird.”

They stared at each other for a minute before Minhyuk glanced at Shownu’s painting. He squinted, trying to make out the small print on the side of the train that hadn’t been painted yet. His eyes widened and he rushed to study Shownu’s painting more closely. On the side of the train was the text ‘44155102M’.

Minhyuk pointed at the text and narrowed his eyes at Shownu. “Why did you use those numbers?” he demanded.

Shownu raised an eyebrow. “They were just random. Why?”

Minhyuk grabbed Shownu’s arm and dragged the other boy across the room to his hourglass painting. “Because I used the exact same numbers. Also random. What the fuck?”

Shownu stared blankly at Minhyuk’s painting, reading the text Minhyuk had drawn wrapped around the base of the hourglass: 44155102M.

“Huh,” Shownu said in a hollow voice. “That’s not...I didn’t use your numbers, Minhyuk. I swear, they just came to me and I sketched them on...I can change mine. It’s not—”

“No, it’s...it’s fine. We can pretend that it’s part of the project or something. It’s actually kind of brilliant, you know?” Minhyuk ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. “Sorry, I just...what are the odds, right?”

“Right…” Shownu said carefully. “Okay. We’ll leave it, I guess. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Minhyuk repeated, still unnerved by the coincidence. He believed that Shownu hadn’t copied his numbers, his face was an open book and it was obvious that he was telling the truth. But still…

Minhyuk pulled out his phone and Googled the number. Maybe they had seen it in an art history class or something— that would explain why they had both come up with it. While the page was loading, he glanced up to see Shownu standing awkwardly by his painting, studying his work.

“I’m Googling it,” Minhyuk explained. “Maybe we’ve both seen it before. Or something.”

“Or something,” Shownu echoed distractedly.

The page loaded and Minhyuk read aloud from the Wikipedia article. “It’s the number of the abandoned Montre train. It hasn’t run in years, though...why would we know that number?”

“Montre is French for watch,” Shownu said suddenly. “Like a wristwatch.”

“And our word for this project is ‘time’? Okay, so maybe our subconscious minds connected all of that?”

“Both of us?” Shownu asked skeptically.

“Um...yes?”

“That’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?”

Minhyuk nodded reluctantly. He needed this to make sense. It was nagging at his mind and he couldn’t let it rest.

Turning back to the article, he read further. “The old station is only a few blocks from the university,” he ventured carefully. “Want to go check it out?”

Shownu blinked. “Together?”

“Well...yeah. No way am I going by myself and you came up with the same number. Maybe we’re supposed to go. Destiny or fate or something.”

“Or something,” Shownu said again.

“So…” Minhyuk said, “will you go with me?”

Shownu looked at his watch. “11:15am...Now?”

“I guess so.” Minhyuk shrugged. “Unless you have a better idea?”

“Not really,” Shownu admitted. “But...we’re just going to stop everything and rush off to an abandoned train station? Because of a random number?”

Minhyuk frowned. “Why not? It’ll be an adventure!” He elbowed Shownu playfully. “Come on, Shownu— when’s the last time you went on an adventure?”

“Um...never?”

“It’ll be fun! Besides, we won’t be gone long. We’ll be back before you know it, then we can finish our project and get back to our boring, ordinary lives.”

“My life isn’t boring,” Shownu mumbled. “It’s quiet, but—”

“Shownu, I was kidding.”

“Oh.”

“Come ooonnnnnnn.” Minhyuk badgered. “Please come with me? Pretty please?”

Shownu studied his painting before sighing heavily. “Fine. Let’s go on an adventure.”

“Yes!”

Shownu smiled at Minhyuk’s enthusiasm. “Are you always this excitable?”

“Just when I get to go on adventures,” Minhyuk said happily. “Adventures are my favorite. Are you ready?” Shownu surveyed their work area, seemed to consider cleaning up a bit, but ultimately decided against it. He pulled sharply at his apron to break the snaps and tossed it on the back of his chair, giving Minhyuk a short nod.

Minhyuk took off his apron, grabbed his backpack, and led the way from the studio. He pulled out his phone as they walked and searched for train times. The Montre train used to stop at the station at 1:15pm, so they had two hours to kill before they needed to be at the platform. He didn’t know how to explain it, but that  _ felt _ right. Like they needed to be at the station to catch the train. He vaguely realized that the train hadn’t run in years and that there would be no actual train for them to catch, but the time had somehow lodged itself in his brain. They had to be on the platform two hours from now, whether there was a train or not. He could feel it.

Minhyuk considered voicing his concerns to Shownu, but decided against it. He didn’t want the other boy to back out because of something silly like logical reasoning. He would bring it up once they were there.

_ An adventure _ , Minhyuk thought excitedly.  _ All of the best Thursdays begin with adventures _ .


	5. Part 2: The Road

Hyungwon pressed a hand against one of the glass windows of the train car, wishing that he could be above ground again. If everything went according to his haphazard plan, then he might just be able to.  _ Soon _ , he promised himself.  _ Please let this work _ .

His silent prayer was met by spiderweb cracks forming in the glass beneath his palm. He jerked his hand away and slowly stepped backwards to take a seat on one of the side benches. He pulled his eyes away from the ominous cracks and turned his head to face the front of the speeding train. He heard the screeching of the wheels racing along the tracks and checked his watch. 1pm. He was fifteen minutes away from the station. Fifteen agonizing minutes away from knowing whether his plan had succeeded or if he had failed them all.


	6. The Race

Changkyun jogged behind Jooheon, his laptop banging against his side as he tried to ignore the burning in his lungs. He didn’t get a lot of exercise, preferring to be inside on his computer, and between the exertion and his last energy drink he was starting to get a little light-headed.

“Jooheon,” he gasped, “can we. Stop for a minute? We should check. The station cameras before. We get there.”

Jooheon slowed to a stop without saying anything, breathing heavily. Changkyun sank to the ground, glad to be off his feet, and quickly opened his laptop to pull up footage of Montre Station. He typed {admin} MONTRE_STATION and then {admin} remotely_access_cctv and he was in. He flipped through a few cameras showing various parts of the station until he landed on CAM06 which showed the platform itself. It was empty.

“All clear,” he told Jooheon. “The station is a ghost town. Let’s chill for a bit and then we should—”

A screeching suddenly filled Changkyun’s brain and he winced, clutching at his head until it passed. He blinked spots from his vision and saw Jooheon swaying on his feet.

“What the hell was  _ that _ ?” Jooheon asked shakily. “My ears were ringing, a fucking screeching noise…”

“Me too,” Changkyun said warily. “What the fuck?”

“This is weird,” Jooheon said, shaking his head vigorously. He checked his watch. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we gotta go. It’s almost 1 and we’re still a block from the station. Come on.”

Changkyun closed his laptop and hurriedly stowed it in his bag, leaping to his feet with a renewed determination. They took off running again.

 

\---

 

Changkyun followed Jooheon down the last set of escalator stairs and they stopped at the bottom, staring out at the empty platform. They were here. Checking his watch, Changkyun breathed a sigh of relief. 1:10pm. They had made it in time...but in time for what?

Jooheon paced around the platform as Changkyun made his way over to one of the central pillars. He let his bag slide off his shoulder and he sat with his back to the pillar, pulling out his laptop again. He plugged in the same commands to access the station feeds and scanned through the cameras. He was surprised to see that they weren’t the only ones exploring the station— two pairs of shadows with flashlights were picking their way through the surrounding tunnels in separate groups, both looking like they were heading their way.

“Uh...Jooheon?”

“Mmm?”

“Looks like we’re about to have company. Four people in two groups, coming through the tunnels. They don’t look like security, but whoever they are...what are the odds that they’re coming to this platform at the exact same time we are?”

Jooheon dropped to Changkyun’s side to see the footage for himself. “Huh,” the other boy muttered. “This has somehow gotten even stranger. What do you think?”

Changkyun turned to look at Jooheon over the rim of his glasses. “I think that all of this is crazy, but that it can’t hurt to have help figuring it out. Maybe they saw the same footage and the timestamp. Maybe they were sent by the boy on the camera. Maybe they’re here by some freak coincidence. But whatever the case, we’ve got to see this through. Same page?”

“Same page,” Jooheon reassured him. “Can you tile the feeds on your screen? Both groups will be here soon, and whether they’re friendly or not, I’d rather not be taken by surprise.”

Changkyun configured the cameras and Jooheon settled onto the floor next to him. They watched the two groups steadily approaching the platform and Changkyun checked the time. 1:09pm. Six minutes until the deadline.


	7. The Answer

Kihyun picked his way through the tunnel below the train station, scanning his flashlight’s beam across the floor without really paying attention to where he was walking. His mind was spinning with equations, checking and rechecking the math behind them. A time loop. They were in a fucking time loop, he couldn’t believe it.

Suddenly something bumped into his shoulder and he yelped, the sound echoing off of the walls of the tunnel. He heard soft laughter and spun to see Wonho grinning beside him. Kihyun felt his face flush and he shined his flashlight in Wonho’s face in harmless retaliation, only making the other boy’s smile widen.

“Relax, Kihyun,” Wonho said easily. “You’re so tense.”

“Am not,” Kihyun pouted. “Okay fine, maybe I am. It’s not every day I skulk around abandoned tunnels with people I hardly know.”

Wonho raised an eyebrow, smirking but saying nothing.

“Where exactly are we going, anyway?” Kihyun continued. “You  _ do _ know where we’re going, right?”

Wonho shrugged. “This isn't my first time down here. It's a great place to think. Besides, I looked over a map of the tunnels on our way over.” He tapped the side of his head. “It’s all up here.”

Kihyun huffed, but took Wonho at his word.  He still wasn’t quite sure what to make of the other boy, but he felt they were connected somehow— by their love of math if nothing else. Remembering how effortlessly Wonho had pulled apart Kihyun’s equations and rearranged the figures into the number that had ultimately led them here, Kihyun couldn’t help but take a liking to the other boy. Despite the bad-boy exterior, it was obvious that Wonho was just a math nerd like him. It was comforting to have something so powerful in common.

Kihyun watched Wonho run a hand across a grimy red wall, tracing a series of numbers underneath the film of dust. They were close, Kihyun could feel it. Checking his watch, Kihyun noted the time. 1:09pm. He glanced up at Wonho who was watching him curiously.

“Is it just me,” Kihyun ventured, “or does it feel like we’re running out of time?”

Wonho glanced at his own watch and grimaced. “Yeah, but I couldn’t tell you exactly why. This whole thing is kind of crazy, you know? A time loop…”

“Yeah,” Kihyun repeated, still unnerved by their discovery. “Are we almost to the platform? I think I’ll feel better once we’re actually there.”

“We’re close,” Wonho said, confirming his suspicion. “Maybe we should pick up our pace a bit, though. I know that the Montre train doesn’t run anymore, but I’m getting the distinct feeling that we might be late. Which is crazy, but still.”

“Same,” Kihyun hurriedly assured him.

They took off at a comfortable jog, the incline of the tunnel increasing slightly as they made their way into the station itself.

Wonho pushed through a set of double doors and they came into a harshly lit hallway. They stowed their flashlights and hurried along one of the tracks until they reached a platform. Kihyun took out his notes and studied the equations he had copied from the white board, the number they had solved for sending a shiver down his spine. Wonho nudged him with his shoulder and motioned towards a set of doors at the far end of the platform.

“Through those doors,” Wonho said quietly. “That’ll be the platform for the Montre train.”

They both stared at the doors for a few seconds, neither of them moving. Kihyun checked his watch again. 1:11pm. They looked at each other, and Kihyun nodded. He was ready. In a few long strides, Wonho led them to the doors and pushed through to the other platform.


	8. The Station

Shownu held the door for Minhyuk as they passed into yet another underground tunnel. He gently closed the door behind them and the soft click echoed around them eerily.

“Do you know where we are?” Shownu asked.

“Um...yes?” Minhyuk replied.

“That’s not a question you’re supposed to answer with another question, Minhyuk.”

“Yes, I know where we are.” Minhyuk said more firmly, and Shownu tried to believe him.

Lifting a flashlight he had borrowed from the art studio, Shownu swung the beam first along the floor and then the ceiling. Above them, he could just make out the small red recording light of a cctv camera. The power was obviously back on.

As if to punctuate his thought, a scattering of fluorescent tubes slowly flickered on around them. The tubes lined the hallway haphazardly, emitting a soft glow that seemed to beckon them further down the hallway.

“That’s creepy,” Shownu said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, come on, Shownu,” Minhyuk teased. “It’s not creepy. It’s interesting. Intriguing. Fascinating.  _ Delightfully mysterious _ . Work with me, here.”

“Creepy,” Shownu muttered.

Silent but for the humming of the fluorescent lights, Minhyuk led them down the tunnel. After a few minutes, he could see a soft light that could only be the inside of the station. They were almost there. Checking his watch, Shownu was shocked to see that it was already 1:10pm.

“We have to hurry,” Minhyuk said anxiously, looking up from his own watch. “The train will be at the platform in five minutes.”

“Minhyuk, the Montre train hasn’t run in—”

“Years, I know,” Minhyuk snapped, immediately lowering his voice. “Look, I know it’s crazy, but we have to be at that platform at 1:15. I don’t know  _ why _ we have to be there, just  _ that _ we do. Please, Shownu.”

Shownu sighed, but nodded and they broke into a jog. The light coming through the door at the end of the tunnel grew brighter as they approached and Shownu felt his feet pulling him on, faster, closer, until Minhyuk finally pushed through the door. The other boy froze once he arrived on the platform and Shownu collided with his back.

“What the hell, Minh—” Shownu started, but Minhyuk grabbed his arm to silence him.

They weren’t alone on the platform.

Two boys were sitting against a pillar, regarding them suspiciously over the top of a laptop, and two more were just coming through a set of doors on the other side of the platform. Shownu carefully guided Minhyuk off to the side and tried to inconspicuously confirm that they were in the right place. The clock mounted on one of the pillars read 1:11pm and directly below it was a map of the station with a cheerful red ‘you are here!’ marking their location. They were definitely in the right spot. They had officially made it on time to Montre Station.


	9. Part 3: The Connect

Hyungwon stood in the train car, having been too restless to stay seated for very long. Most of the windows now had thin cracks running through the glass, the screeching of the wheels was increasing in volume with every turn the train careened through, and he was desperately trying to keep his hope alive. He checked his watch again, his heart leaping into his throat when he saw the time. 1:12pm. Three minutes until he reached the station.

Forcing himself to sit, Hyungwon cradled his head in his hands. He closed his eyes. The ticking of the watch now strapped to his wrist had panic and relief fighting for a top spot in his mind. The ticking meant that time was passing, that soon he would know for sure whether his plan had worked instead of just having to wait.

He had done everything he could. It was up to the other boys now. Three minutes until all of his work either came together or came crashing down around him. Three minutes and then the waiting would be over. At last.


	10. The Leap

Changkyun’s eyes flicked between the four new people that had just come onto the platform, trying to guess their motivations for being there. The pair to his left looked like they had just left an art studio, with paint still on their hands and clothes. They were whispering nervously and staring at Changkyun and Jooheon openly. Changkyun stared back until the shorter of the two squeaked and looked away.

The two to his right were almost comically mismatched— one looking like a classic nerd, the other brooding in a black leather jacket. As he watched, the first boy pulled out a stack of paper that they both began studying intensively. He wondered what was on the paper and whether or not the platform cameras would be powerful enough to read whatever was written there if he hijacked one of them...he dismissed the idea quickly. He briefly considered just asking them, but Jooheon surprisingly beat him to it.

“So what brings you all to Montre Station?” Jooheon asked carefully, his attention split between the two groups.

There was an uncomfortable silence and Changkyun resisted the urge to smack Jooheon upside the head. Finally the taller boy of the artsy group spoke up.

“We’re, um...waiting for the train. The Montre train.”

Changkyun narrowed his eyes, but again Jooheon replied before he could speak.

“The Montre train hasn’t run in years,” Jooheon said. “I think we all know that, so what I want to know is why you’re  _ really _ here.”

The tall boy flushed and his friend spoke up in his defense. “Why should we tell you? Besides, you’re waiting here same as us. Why are  _ you _ really here?”

Jooheon frowned, but Changkyun interrupted his retort.

“We got a message,” he half-lied, not wanting to mention the transmission they picked up in case it was some sort of trap set by the boy on the camera. “Saying that we should meet someone here at 1:15pm. Did he send you, too? Is that why you’re here?”

“No one sent us,” the shorter boy replied, cocking his head curiously. “We, um...came across the number of the Montre train and decided to come to the station to check it out.”

“How did you ‘come across’ the number?” Changkyun asked them suspiciously.

The shorter boy looked flustered. “It’s...complicated. Wait, you said someone sent you? Who?”

“We came across the same number,” said one of the boys from the other group.

Changkyun whipped his head around in time to see the boy in the leather jacket give his friend an exasperated look.

“Kihyun, we have no idea who these people are. We can’t just—”

“Why not?” Kihyun asked pointedly. “We’re all in this together, as far as I’m concerned. Maybe they’re connected somehow.”

Changkyun shot Jooheon a ‘what the hell’ look, which the other boy returned.

“Connected to what?” Jooheon asked.

Kihyun pointed at the papers in his hand and then at his friend. “We’re in a time loop. Wonho proved it and we wound up with the number of the Montre train. So now we’re here.”

Wonho threw up his hands and folded his arms across his chest uncomfortably.

Changkyun gaped at them, trying to process what Kihyun had said. “A time loop?” He said incredulously. “How is that possible?”

“It shouldn’t be,” Kihyun said, waving the papers emphatically. “That’s my  _ point _ .”

Changkyun leaned back against the pillar and looked at Jooheon. The other boy caught his stare and shrugged nonchalantly, like a time loop wasn’t that big of a deal. Changkyun rolled his eyes and snapped his laptop closed with a sigh, stowing it back in his bag.

“Well, Kihyun, I guess we’re going to find out in…” Changkyun checked his watch. “Two minutes, whether or not we’re all supposed to be here. I’m Changkyun, by the way, and this is Jooheon.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kihyun said politely, beaming happily.

“I’m Minhyuk!” the shorter boy from the artsy group declared brightly. “And this is Shownu. We’re art majors at the university.”

“We’re at the university, too,” Wonho supplied somewhat reluctantly. “Theoretical math.”

Changkyun raised his eyebrows at that, wondering how a math major ended up looking anything like Wonho.

“Are you guys at the university?” Kihyun asked Changkyun.

“N—”

“Yes,” Jooheon said quickly, earning a quizzical look from Changkyun. “Uh...computer science.”

“That’s neat,” Kihyun said, beaming again. “Wonho did a project on cryptography and tied into computer science, but I’m kind of hopeless with technology in general.”

Wonho turned bright red and looked like he wanted to disappear, so Changkyun tried to come up with a way to steer the conversation in a different direction. He checked his watch and felt his stomach somersault.

“One minute,” he said quietly, and a hush fell over the room. Distantly, they could hear the rumbling of an approaching train.

“There’s actually a train,” Changkyun heard Minhyuk whisper. “I  _ knew _ it.”

Jooheon stood and walked towards the closed doors over the tracks. Changkyun scrambled to his feet to follow.

“Changkyun,” Jooheon muttered, “It’s not slowing down. Why isn’t is slowing down?”

Changkyun heard the same screech that had assaulted his brain earlier and realized that Jooheon was right. Not only that, but this train was going really fast.  _ Too _ fast.

Jooheon tentatively leaned on the door and yelped when his hands passed  _ through _ the material. Changkyun grabbed at the other boy’s jacket to keep him from pitching forward and they both reeled back.

“What the  _ fuck _ ?” Changkyun whispered in shock.

Jooheon turned slowly, the familiar look on his face telling Changkyun that the other boy had a plan that he wouldn’t like.

“Whatever it is, no.” Changkyun quickly said.

“Changkyun, we have to get on that train. And it’s not going to stop for us. We’re going to have to jump.”

Changkyun goggled at Jooheon. “We’re going to have to do no such thing,” he protested firmly. “How do we know that we’ll even get on the train? More likely we’ll just slam right into it.”

Jooheon thrust out his hand into the door again, giving Changkyun a stubborn look when his arm passed right through what should have been solid metal.

“Nothing can explain this,” Jooheon said. “And nothing can explain the train speeding towards us. It will be here in a matter of seconds and we  _ need to be on it _ .”

The other boys had ventured closer to the tracks and were staring at Jooheon’s magically disappearing hand.

“Did I hear you wrong or are you suggesting we try to jump onto the train?” Shownu asked them, his voice strained.

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” Jooheon said, raising his voice so the others could hear him. “Who’s in?”

Changkyun gave himself three seconds to debate Jooheon’s loaded question. It was crazy. It probably would get them killed. But Jooheon was right— they had to get on this impossible train and they had run out of time.

“I’m in,” Changkyun said, taking a few steps back. “We’re going to need a running start, though.” He surveyed the rest of their unlikely group and raised an eyebrow. “We’ve got about ten seconds, guys. Make your decision.”

Changkyun braced himself to run and felt more than saw Jooheon aligned with him. The others quickly followed suit and Changkyun counted aloud, having to project his voice to be heard over the screeching train.

“Three,” he shouted, leaning back. “Two.” He began to push forward. “One…” He broke into a run as the headlights of the first train car sped past them.

Every part of his rational mind screamed at him to stop, but he ignored his instincts and kept going. He lengthened his stride, pushed off the ground, felt his body suspended in air with no way to change his mind...


	11. Deja Vu

Wonho met no resistance from the doors or the train’s side as he passed through both, landing heavily on his feet and hurriedly skidding to a stop. The train swayed and Wonho stumbled, grabbing at one of the metal poles for balance. Around him, the other boys similarly jolted to a stop and they all stood there for a few moments, looking around the train car warily. They had made it onto the train, but...now what?

Jooheon was the first to recover and strode confidently towards the front of the train, opening the door without hesitation. The rest of them had no choice but to follow. Wonho took up the rear and when he finally passed into the next car, he froze. There was someone else on the train with them.

A tall boy Wonho vaguely recognized sat hunched on one of the seats and looked up wearily, his expression shifting from surprise to the briefest flash of recognition before lapsing into an unreadable melancholy. Jooheon walked straight up to the other boy and grabbed a handhold to steady himself. He grinned easily, but the stranger only managed to look even more dejected than before.

“You made it,” the boy said quietly. “I’m Hyungwon. Why don’t you all take a seat, I’ve got some explaining to do.”

“Damn right,” Wonho muttered under his breath, earning a warning look from Kihyun.

Wonho chose to remain standing, too nervous to sit. He waited patiently while the others gathered around Hyungwon and they all stared at the other boy expectantly.

“I owe you all an apology,” Hyungwon said sadly. “None of you would be here if not for me. You’d all be living normal lives, with no idea...but I had to change things. I was arrogant. I thought—”

“Why don’t you start from the beginning,” Jooheon said, his tone surprisingly gentle.

Hyungwon took a shaky breath and nodded. They all listened carefully as he began to speak, the train never slowing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger ending! D:  
> Thank you all so much for reading, I can't wait to see where the boys take us next :)  
> <3


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